Castles in the Sky
by BlaiddDrwg30
Summary: When the Doctor and Rose land on Earth to investigate potential suspicious alien activity they find an undercover Slitheen operation. With the help of a young woman named Rebecca, they race to defeat the hostile Slitheen.
1. Chapter 1: Apathy

Rebecca bit her lip and held back a groan of frustration. No matter how many times she repeated it, she just could not seem to get her point across to this guy. It was literally like talking to a brick wall. A brick wall with a temper.

"Mr. Baylor, like I said, I just can't use both of these coupons at the same time."

"Why can't I? Where does it say that?"

She fought the urge to scream. "Right here, Mr. Baylor. It says it right here on the bottom."

"That's a bait and switch! Why would you send two coupons and then not want people to use them?"

_Well, maybe they sent it so that you could use it for another vehicle? Or maybe so that you could use it for another day? Did you ever think about THAT, Mr. Baylor, before you came in here and started breaking my stones about it?_ But she said none of those things. She just smiled weakly and tried to explain it for the fourth time.

Suddenly the door behind her burst open and the service director for the dealership barged out. She felt the color drain from her face as she realized that the situation had just gone from bad to worse. She sat there tight lipped as the director berated her right in front of the customer and then assure him that yes, they would in fact use both coupons and would even add a third coupon to it just for his inconvienance. When he was finally done and the customer walked away, Rebecca felt herself flush with humiliation and anger. Why did things in her job always turn out this?

"Do you want to know what you did wrong?", he asked as he turned to face her.

_Not really, _she thought, but managed to nod in what she hoped was an interested way.

"In our business, we can't afford to upset anyone. The customer is always right, no matter what. Why wouldn't you want to use both coupons?"

She couldn't hold it back any longer. "Mr. Foulks, I agreed to use one of his coupons, just not both. It stated quite clearly on both coupons that they could not be combined with any other offer. Also, didn't you just have a meeting with us last week about cost efficiency?"

She couldn't explain what happened next. For one minute he looked merely confused and then for a brief instant his eyes seemed to almost..._glow. _He looked illuminated from the inside with an eerie blue light. Her mouth dropped open with surprise. But as soon as she started to speak it was gone.

Mr. Foulks smiled. It might have been due to what she had just witnessed, but the smile seemed somehow ominous to her. "Never mind what was said in the meeting, Rebecca. From now on, I want every customer satisfied. Is that understood?"

She nodded again, still a bit shaken by what she had seen. When he walked away she took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes, feeling the beginning of a headache coming on. She wondered if she was beginning to lose her mind.

~To be continued


	2. Chapter 2: Two is better than one

The Doctor stepped out of the Tardis and took in a big breath of air. "Ahhhhh!", he said stretching out his arms. "Been a long time since I've been to America! Smell that air?"

Rose wrinkled her nose. "It smells like car fumes."

His eyes lit up with amusement. "Exactly!"

His companion smiled. "So what are we doing here, in this smelly old place. Where in America are we again?"

He looked around. "If my calculations were correct, we should be...in southern New Jersey."

Rose bit her lip. No chance of us going to an exciting state like New York, eh? Or a nice warm one like Florida?

The Doctor grinned. "Nope. All the action seems to be here in this lovely place."

Rose played with the zipper on her pink hoodie. "And Mickey thinks there is something dodgy going on at some car dealership, right?"

The Doctor nodded. "He picked up a notification on an illegal transport of something that just screamed extraterrestrial in nature." He checked his watch. "Being that it is the year 2014, and Earth hasn't yet made it's fledgling footsteps towards the stars..." He lifted his hands.

She nodded, "We're too assume that something bad is about to go down."

He pointed his finger at her. "Correct! It at least warrants a quick peek, right? At the very least we can stop in, make sure everything's okay and then pop right back out again."

She raised her eyebrow at him. "And if there IS something going on?"

He smiled in a feral manner. "Then we put a stop to it."

Rose grinned back at him. "Alright, when do we start?"

The Doctor looked around again, his expression darkening with seriousness. "Now, I should think. The dealership in question is right around the corner, less than a mile, in fact. Let's at least just take a look and see what we've got going on, shall we?"

He held out his hand and after she entwined her fingers around his, walked with him towards their next adventure.


	3. Chapter 3: Spark

Rebecca paused as she unwrapped the sandwich she had brought for lunch, enjoying the feel of the wind in her hair. The picnic bench outside the dealership was the perfect place to slip away for a few undisturbed minutes and enjoy a quiet lunchbreak. She replayed the events from earlier over again in her head and wondered for the umpteenth time why she didn't just quit.

_Because I've got bills to pay, that's why,_ she thought glumly. Renting out half of a duplex to live in wasn't a cheap task, especially when you lived on your own. And with her monthly car payments and insurance it was obvious that she couldn't just break free and walk away. At least not until she found something else. _There has to be something better_, she thought. _Maybe I should start sending out a resume, see if I get any hits_. She had worked there for a number of years. And every just seemed to get worse and worse and harder to make herself go in. But when she was being completely honest with herself, she could see that it wasn't just her job she was fed up with. It was just on overall disasisfaction in general. She couldn't help wondering why she expected just so much MORE out of life.

Her thoughts were interupted when she saw someone in her peripheral vision. Two someones. Surprised at seeing anyone approach the dealership from this direction she turned to face them as they walked toward her and felt like she had been electrified. The man was tall and thin, with a mop of unruly brown hair that seemed to fall haphazardly across his forehead. He was without a doubt the best looking man she had ever seen. The blonde girl he was with walked with such a confidant and almost lacksidasical grace that made Rebecca almost swoon with envy. She couldn't even exactly say what it was about them that intrigued her so. They had an almost...otherwordly prescense about them. It pulled her in like a leaf in a whirlpool.

She brushed the crumbs off her lap and stood up when they got close to the table.

"Can I help you?" she asked politely, trying to keep the curiosity out of her voice.

Without hesitation the man responded, "You work here, yes?" while pointing to her nametag.

_For better or worse_, she thought to herself before ansewring, "Yes, sir, I do. Is there something I can do for you today?"

For a quick second the blonde flashed her eyes to her partner, almost seeming to say, _This one's all yours, buddy._

He put his hands in his pockets and said, "Yes, you can. We are representatives from General Motors here to preform a brief inspection on your facility."

She found she was slightly mesmerized by his British accent. "O-okay," she stammered, "I'll take you in to my manager."

The stranger's face broke out in a smile that Rebecca was sure would bring the sun back out on a cloudy day. She couldn't help but smile back at him warmly. "Just follow me, okay?" She turned and, gathering up her purse and the rest of her lunch, started walking back into the building.

"Oh," exclaimed the blonde girl, "Are we interupting your lunch?" It was the first time she had spoken since they arrived.

Rebecca smiled easily. "No, it's okay. I was just about finished up anyway." And it was true. While she usually couldn't stand to have her free time interupted, since she had so little of it throughout the day, she found herself wanting to help these two strangers, if she could. Something about them..."I didn't quite catch your names." she asked, since they weren't wearing nametags. Which was a bit odd now that she thought of it, since usually people who came from GM always dressed pretty fancy and wore laminated tags with their names on them. Her eyes flicked over them again quickly. He was wearing a blue suit with...red converse sneakers and the girl was dressed even more casually in blue slacks and a white top.

The blonde held out her hand. "Sorry! How rude of us! I'm Rose. Rose Tyler. And this is the Doctor."

Rebecca shook her hand and stifled a giggle as she turned to the man. "The...Doctor?"

"Oh yes! Just call me Doctor." He shook her hand and she had to stifle a gasp. It almost felt like sparks igniting when their skin made contact. She turned and started walking again, utterly bewildered at the effect these two were having on her.


	4. Chapter 4: I knew you were trouble

When she walked into the service directors office she could immedittely tell that he was in a foul mood. The coffee she had brought him earlier was still sitting, untouched, on the corner of his desk. He had a stack of papers sitting in front of him, and he was sitting in his chair with his arms folded and his eyes scrunched shut. She bit her lip and hesitated, knowing she was going to recieve a verbal backlash for being the one to break the silence here. She cleared her throat uncertainly and when he didn't respond she said loudly, "Sir?"

His eyes flew open. "What?" he barked at her.

She stepped aside, allowing him to see two newcomers standing behind her. "Mr. Foulks, these are two representatives from General Motors." she had already decided against telling him their names unless they asked, she didn't feel like hearing grief over the whole 'Doctor' aspect of the situation. "They need to do a survey of the facility."

He stood up and ran his hands over his shirt, flattening out any stray wrinkles. "Ah, very good! We would be happy to give you a tour of the place!"

Rebecca turned and started to walk out, figuring he could handle it now and not wanting to be a part of the general ass-kissing that was going to take place as her boss practically salivated all over the people from General Motors. As she walked past Rose, the blonde grabbed her by the wrist and whispered, 'Stay?' Caught of guard yet touched by the girls gesture and winning smile, Rebecca nodded and stood behind her.

"We'll get a dealer representative to take you around the facility," he was saying.

The Doctor turned and nodded to her. "We'd be happy with Rebecca walking us around."

She flushed with pleasure. Her? They wanted her to escort them? Her boss sputtered out a reply and with a grin she led the two strangers out of the office and into the garage. This was shaping up to be an awesome day after all.

She walked them through the sales and parts departments, but the Doctor and Rose seemed most interested in the service department, where she worked. They spent alot of times checking out the areas the mechanics worked in, answering quesitions that seemed more bizarre by the minute.

"Do you get alot of shipments? Maybe arriving in this area instead of the parts department."

"Ah, not that I know of."

"How about your personel? Hire any new people lately?"

"No, we've had the same crew for a few years now."

"What about anything strange? Have you seen anything that would be considered...odd?"

She paused, thinking about the blue glow she saw on her boss earlier. She decided not to tell them. She was sure they would just think she was crazy. "No," she responded. "Nothing odd around here."

The Doctor stared at her for a second longer than normal and if Rebecca didn't know any better she would say that he somehow knew she was lying.

Rose piped in, "How do you like working here?"

She was flabbergasted momentarily. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had asked her that, and she wasn't sure whether she should be completely honest with them. She looked at their faces and they seemed so sincere, so forthright. She decided to give them the same courtesy. "No," she admitted. "It's pretty horrible, and seems to be getting worse all the time."

"When did this...worseness start?"

She thought about it. "I guess it has been for the past few months. Tensions are running high. Everyone is one edge, without really knowing why."

The Doctor nodded as he looked around. "Very interesting," he murmmered. He walked over where a few drums were laying on their side in the back of the garage. Rebecca and Rose followed him over. The Doctor bent down and looked more closely at some purple fluid that seemed to be leaking from the bottom of the drum. Then, even more curiously, he removed a thin metal cylindrical object from his inside jacket pocket. Rebecca leaned over closer to see what he was doing. Was he taking a sample of the fluid? Suddenly the tip of the object in his hand lit up with a blue glow. She stepped back so quickly she almost bumped into Rose, who was standing right behind her. Rose grabbed her arms steadily, to keep her from falling.

"S'all right, really," Rose said to her quietly. "The Doctor knows what he's doing."

He stood back up and turned to face them, the smile on his face not quite reaching his the tension behind his eyes. "I think we're done here!"

The things that just didn't seem to add up were starting to give Rebecca a headache. "You two," she started hesitantly "aren't really reps, are you?"

Rose and the Doctor looked at each other.

Rose cleared her throat.

"Weeeeeeell, technically we are sort of like reps. But not from GM, no," the Doctor said.

"Yeah," Rose said, "we're more like reps for the human race in general."

Rebecca laughed. "I really have no idea what you guys are talking about, but it's okay. I'll still help you anyway, if I can."

Rose seemed surprised. "Really?"

Rebecca nodded. "Sure. I can't help trusting you guys. You know, despite having lied about where you're from and why you're here."

The Doctor winked at her. "You wouldn't believe us even if we did tell you."

She rolled her eyes. "You'd be surprised. Anyway, is there anything else you guys needed, or...?"

He shook his head. "We're pretty much done here. Thanks for everything, Rebecca. It was wonderful meeting you."

She was surprised to find how disappointed she was to find they were leaving already. She genuinely enjoyed their company. "Alright then. It was great meeting you guys too. Hope you found what you were looking for. Good luck with...everything." With a quick wave and a brief smile she walked away and went back to work, certain she would never see them again.

They waited for her to walk out of earshot and then Rose turned to the Doctor and said, "I like her."

He nodded, his expression unclear. "I do too."

"So, "DID we find what we were looking for?"

He nodded. The screwdriver indicated that the fluid that was in those back drums was a highly concentrated form of ionized -."

"Which is...?"

"What it is, is bad. The only place this substance can be found is the planet Raxacoriofallapatoris."

She groaned. "You have got to be kidding me."

"I wish I was. Seems like some members of the Slitheen family are still hanging around this planet."

"So what do we do now?"

He crossed his arms across his chest. "The Slitheen could be disguised as anyone in this place. If we hang around too much longer now we're surely bound to arouse some suspicions. So. We come back later tonight, after it gets dark. We break in. And we see what else we can find out."


	5. Chapter 5: Comrades

The moon was a sliver of light in the sky when Rose and the Doctor made it back to the dealership that night. The Doctor had parked the Tardis much closer this time, in case they had to make a quick getaway. They left it on the side lot of the building, the old fashioned blue structure looking out of place next to all the brand new cars.

The Doctor walked up to the door on the side, with Rose close behind and just as he was about to use his sonic screwdriver to open the door he heard a female voice exclaim loudly, "What are you doing?"

The Doctor and Rose both jumped slightly and turned to find Rebecca standing there, her arms folded against her chest.

"What are you doing here?" The Doctor hissed at her.

"What am I doing here? What are YOU two doing here?!" she hissed back. "I forgot my purse and wanted to get it before the cleaners came in. And for the record, I at least WORK here, what excuse do you have?"

"Well we're from the committee of...representatives of...your main processing...oh hell, Rose where were we from again?"

Rose stifled a giggle. "Representatives from General Motors, remember?"

"Ah!" The Doctor exclaimed, pointing a finger at Rebecca. "Yes, that. We're from that, what she said."

The three of them stood looking at each other silently for a moment before Rebecca and Rose burst out laughing.

"Sorry Doctor," Rebecca said, shaking her head. "But I barely believed you when you said it earlier today and you really didn't do too much to convince me otherwise just now."

"I told you so!" Rose excalimed as she patted his arm. "Sometimes you are rubbish at remembering that stuff."

The Doctor adjusted his glasses thoughtfully. "Hm. Well. What was it that gave it away? From earlier, I mean."

Both the strangers looked at Rebecca as she tried to answer as honestly as she was able. "I can't put my finger on it, exactly. I guess it was just more of a feeling when I saw you guys. That you were part of something so much bigger and more important than just car stuff. So. Do you want to tell me who you really are?"

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other silently for a moment. Rose patted his arm and squeezed gently. He nodded to her before looking back towards Rebecca. "Alright. You might want to make yourself comfortable." He grinned. "This could take awhile."

_some time later_

He was surprised at how well she actually took to everything, considering that he took her view of the world and just expanded it exponentially. For the most part, unless absolutely necessarry he tried to keep his true identity a secret from most humans, as many of them had a hard time wrapping their minds around things that were, well, idifferent/i. All people were special and unique, in his opinion. There was no such thing as an ordinary human, which was one of the reasons why the human race was one of his favorite species. But it was a rare and beautiful person indeed that could accept the truth about him and the universe so easily. Over the years he had taken such people with him on his travels. Rose was one such person. Rebecca had the same potential. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, wondering what it meant that they had crossed paths with her.

"So...now that I know all this, I guess what I saw this morning makes a lot more sense," she said.

"What did you see this morning?" Rose asked.

Rebecca looked at them sheepishly. "Well, I wasn't exactly one hundred percent honest with you when you asked me if I had noticed anything strange lately. I told you I hadn't, rememeber? Well, just this morning, my manager seemed to...glow blue."

"Your manager? You mean that real pleasant sounding fella we talked to earlier?"

She giggled. "Oh yes, that's the one."

"Ah." He appeared thoughtful. "It seems we've found our Slitheen friend. Or at least the body he's hiding in." He turned back to the door and turned on the sonic screwdriver.

"What's that?"

"This?" He displayed it proudly. "It's my sonic screwdriver! Using it to open up the door."

Rebecca held up her key to the building. "We could just use this though, couldn't we?"

The Doctor looked back to her, grinning, "Now where's the fun in that?"

The dealership seemed very different at night. Without all the lights and the hustle and bustle of salesmen and customers, the silence and darkness seemed almost ominous. The three of them padded softly through the showroom, past all the new cars until the reached the door to the garage.

Turning to face them, the Doctor said, "There were slight traces of verbanium throughout this whole place, but the largest concentration I picked up were in those bins in the corner of the garage. That's where we'll start looking." And with that, he used the sonic screwdriver to open the garage door and dart off into the inky blackness.

Rebecca felt fingers wrap around her own and she looked over to see Rose holding her hand. "Don't be scared," she said softly. "The Doctor will fix everything, just you wait and see."

"Oh, I'm not scared!" she grinned back at the blond. If anything, I'm excited! This is the most fun I've had ever!"

Rose looked startled for a moment before echoing her grin back to her. "Now you sound like me, that's what I felt like during my first adventure with the Doctor. Look at us, we must be daft. Running into danger rather than away from it!"

Still holding hands and grinning, they followed the Doctor into the darkness of the shop


	6. Chapter 6: Cause and Effect

Even though it was night, the shop still carried most of the heat from the day, so as soon as the door closed behind them the warm air swept across their faces, which made it feel like stepping into an oven. The blue light from the Doctor's sonic screwdriver allowed them enough light to make their way through the garage. The sound of their footsteps echoed as they walked, giving the impression of walking through a cave. It was slightly unsettling, especially considering what they were up against. Rebecca's heart began to wildly thump against her chest. She had no idea what was going to happen next. And that was without a doubt the most exhilirating sensation she had ever experianced. That _not_ knowing. The moment of breathless anticipation. The plunge before the fall.

The Doctor must have read her mind because he turned around and beamed at her, saying, "Isn't this brillant?!" Unable to respond she just nodded eagerly, happy that circumstances had brought them all together today.

Without warning there was a loud THUD from the back of the garage. Moving more quickly now the trio hurried the rest of the way through the garage, following the source of the noise. Another crash followed, and they ducked behind a pile of stacked crates. The rear garage door was open, and Rebecca let out a gasp as she recognized her manager lifting 100 gallon drums above his head and, along with another man, was loading them into the back of the shop.

"Is that your manager?" Rose asked her.

She nodded grimly.

"Who's that other guy with him?"

"The sales manager, Mr. Norton," she whispered. "I guess that means he's in on it too?"

"Let's find out, shall we?" The Doctor asked quietly before swiftly stepping out from behind the crates and casually walking up to the men.

"Well now, what have we here? Two managers putting in some overtime! Hope they're paying you well!" He yelled loudly as the two men froze.

My grip on Rose's arm tightened as she asked her, "Is the Doctor insane? He's just going to walk right up to them? He doesn't even have a weapon!"

She chuckled. "It's just his way. You'll get used to it."

Meanwhile Mr. Norton and Mr. Foulks had thrown down the bins and were staring at the Doctor. "What are you doing sneaking around here?" Mr Foulks grumbled.

"Oh, I don't know," the Doctor said as he scratched his ear and looked around. "Guess I'm just wondering what a huge amount of verbanium is doing in 21st Century America."

The managers froze. "How...do you know it's verbanium? Or even what that is? Just who are you?" Mr Norton managed to ask amidst his confusion.

"I'm the Doctor." he grinned. "And I'm here to shut you down."

Both managers hissed and reached up to their foreheads. Rebecca gasped in frozen horror as she watched the two men unzip themselves out of their skin like too-small suits. Blue light flooded the area. With eyes wide she saw the Slitheen's true form for the first time. Bulbous, slimy faces. Claws the length of her arm. Eyes like black, fathomless pits.

Rose sniffed. "Smelly buggers."

The Doctor seemed nonplussed. "Now, that's more like it. Comfortable, are we?"

"WE WILL NOT LET YOU INTERFERE WITH OUR PLANSSSS!"

He raised an eyebrow. "And what plans might that be?"

The Slitheen that had once been Rebecca's boss blinked. "OVER TIME, VERBANIUM CAUSES CORRSION IN EVEN THE STRONGEST OF METALS. ONCE ALL THE CARS ARE DOUSED WITH IT, AND PEOPLE BUY THEM, IT WON'T BE LONG UNTIL THEY BEGIN TO FALL APART."

The second Slitheen piped up, "YES, AND WHEN COMBINED WITH THE VOLATILITY OF THE FUEL TANKS THEY WILL BEGIN TO EXPLODE! MASS PANIC WILL ENSUE! THIS DEALERSHIP IS THE FIRST STARTING POINT, AFTER THAT WE WILL MOVE ON UNTIL WE HAVE CONTAMINATED EVERY SINGLE CAR IN THIS COUNTRY!"

"But what is the point of all that?" The Doctor asked, seriously bewildered. "Why cause so much destruction?"

The Slitheen let out throaty raspy laughs. "PROFIT OF COURSE. ONCE WE FAKE THE NATIONWIDE CAR EPIDEMIC WE CAN PRETEND TO DEVELOP A CURE FOR IT AND CAPITALIZE ON IT!"

The Doctor rubbed at his eyes, as if to dispel a headache. "Always about money, with you lot, isnt it?" He looked up at them. "You know I have to stop you, right?"

The aliens laughed once more. "AND WHAT GOOD CAN YOU DO, DOCTOR? ALL BY YOUR LONESOME!"

The Doctor smiled, and the sight of it made Rebecca's heart skip a beat. "Oh no," he said quietyl. "I'm never alone."

As Rose ran out from behind the crate the Doctor kicked over the nearest drum, spilling verbanium all over the floor, causing the Slitheen to shriek with rage.

Looking around frantically, Rebecca saw a spray can of cleaning solution propped up against the crate. Grabbing it, she yelled out to Rose before throwing it towards her. Rose caught it just before it hit the floor and in one fluid motion turned and sprayed the nearest Slitheen in the face. Howling with rage and blinded, it dropped to the floor.

Suddenly inspired, Rebecca ran back through the shop, stopping at the toolbox of a mechanic she knew well. Fumbling around the top of it she came across what she knew she would find; matches. iI will never be more grateful for your bad smoking habits than I am today, Tony/i she thought wildly as she ran back to Rose who was guarding the fallen Slitheen with the can of cleaner as if her life depended on it.

"Here", Rebecca said, tossing the matches to her as she ran past her. "Light 'em up."

She heard the 'snick' of the match and then the whoosh of flames as Rose threw the match at the alien. It shrieked only momentarily before being compeltely consumed by thre flames.

Rebecca ran out the back door only the bump into the Doctor as he was running back in. "Go, get out of here, the other one's coming!" he yelled as he pushed her along.

"Wait!" she cried out "I have an idea!" Stunned into silence, the Doctor allowed her to manuever him over to the corner where the door was operated. "Wait here," she said "And when I yell now, hit the switch." She ran back over to the door and stood there facing the back of the lot.

The alien saw her. It's black eyes narrowing in anger, it ran towards her, fangs glistening, claws reaching out to rip her to pieces.

She could hear Rose yelling her name behind her but even louder was the sound of the blood rushing through her head. Never had she felt more _alive!_

As soon as the Slitheen was a few meters away she screamed, "NOW!"

The Doctor hit the switch and the huge garage door came crashing down on top the Slitheen, crushing it dead.


	7. Chapter 7: A new start

Rose and the Doctor stood at the top of the hill, watching the fire department finish clearing up debris at the dealership across the street. It was surprising how little damage actually occured, especially considering how flammable and volatile verbanium actually was. But aside from fire damage to the back of the garage, everything else was okay. The only volatile thing left were the thoughts and ideas that were churning inside the Doctor's head. He had been around long enough to know that everything happened for a reason. They were _meant_ to come here to this time and place. But was it simply to fix the mess with the Slitheen? Or was it...something else. _Someone_ else?

Rose stepped closer and slipped her hand into the Doctor's. "Everything turned out alright, after all."

He nodded, unusually quiet. "Yes, it did."

"Rebecca was a pretty big help, don't ya think?" she pressed.

He nodded again. "Yes, she was."

They both stood there for a minute, looking at the building being worked on, while Rose figured out how to say what had been on her mind since the previous evening.

"Doctor...I was thinking...maybe we could invite her to come with us?"

This finally got a reaction out of him. He turned and looked at her for a moment before turning back around. "I don't think that would be a good idea, Rose."

"Why not?"

He sighed. "I seem to recall a certain time not too long ago when we briefly had another female companiaon called Sarah Jane. Remember her? The amount of tension between you two gave me a headache."

"But that was just at first!" she protested. "We were good mates by the end of it."

He shook his head and laughed. "Sarah Jane and I were close. One of my best friends. We were never...romantically involved."

Rose's grip on his hand tightened and she put her chin on his shoulder. "Not like us."

He smiled warmly at her. "No, not like us. But in any case, Sarah Jane was just a friend and look how jealous you got! What would happen if we bring Rebecca with us?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Why? What do you mean?"

"Rose," he said gently "I like Rebecca. Alot. I don't want that to...complicate things."

"But I like her too!" she exclaimed.

He shook his head. "I don't think you are grasping the meaning of 'like.'"

She smiled at him. "I know _exactly_ what you are trying to say. And what _I_ am trying to say, is that I like her too.

He eyes grew huge. "What?"

She laughed at his expression. "I know, right? I've never liked girls before. And I still like guys. Well, you know, I like _you_." She playfully hit his arm. I...can't explain it. There's just...something about her. Something that draws me in."

Finally the Doctor smiled. "Exactly."

"So if we _both_ like her, there's no problem, right? No need for jealousy from either of us! And shes already proved she can handle tough situations. Can she come with us?"

"I would imagine that would be up to her," he said wryly as he watched Rebecca walk up the hill toward them. She was wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top, and her hair was down today. She looked completely different from how she looked yesterday in her work clothes. He almost didn't recognize her.

"Hi guys!" she said brightly as she walked toward them. "Figured you'd be here."

"Closed down the shop today?" Rose asked, smiling. "Wonder why!"

Rebecca put her hands in her pockets and grinned. "Funny thing, there seemed to be some sort of fire in the back of the garage last night. How about that? No lasting damage, but enough for us to close down for the day." She paused. "So...what happens now?"

"Weeeell," the Doctor said, "We're heading off shortly. Places to go. Aliens to see. Worlds to save. All that stuff."

Rose looked at him.

"You could...come with us. If you wanted to?"

The effect on her face was astounding. Her smile was so huge and genuine that it looked like she was being illuminated by a thousand suns.

"Really? You would want me to come along with you?"

Touched by her exuberance, Rose said "Of course we want you with us. Why wouldn't we?"

Rebecca shrugged self-consciously.

"Could be dangerous," The Doctor warned. "Don't know when we'll be back."

"That's fine with me! I'm ready for anything!" She was surprised at how brave she was feeling. She felt as if she had finally woken up after being asleep for years. She abslutely couldn't believe her luck that something this incredible was finally happening to her.

"Alright! Are we ready to go then?" The Doctor asked cheerfully.

"Oh yes!" She showed them the backpack she had with her. "I brought a few things from home this morning, beacuse to be honest I was going to ask you if I could come along anyway."

Rose burst out laughing, "Resourceful little thing, aren't you?"

Rebecca blushed and smiled at them both.

"Well then!" The Doctor said. "Glad that's settled. Right around the corner is the Tardis. First one there gets to pick our next destination!" With that, he bolted off in the direction of his ship, with Rose hot on his heels and laughing her ass off.

Laughter burst out of Rebecca as she hurried to catch up to them. The next phase of her life was starting. And she was more than ready for it.

_"At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may, in fact, be the first steps of a journey."_


End file.
